Sidney p



(No Model.)

S. F. SHELBOURN'E;

COMBINED ELECTRIC LIGHT AND TELEGRAPH. POST. N0. 297,182. Patented Apr. 22, 188.4.

Unrriin 'Srarns PATENT FFICE.

SIDNEY F. SHELBOURNE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

-COMBiNED ELECTRIC-LIGHT AND TELEGRAPH POST.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 297,182, dated April 22, 1884.

Application filed September 8, 1883. (No model.)

Z0 all whom it may concern:

' Beit known that I, SIDNEY F. SHELBOURNE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of New York and State of New York, have inventeda new and useful support or post upon which to erect electric or other lights, and at the same time provide an improved and advantageous channel to carry to the proper elevation for distribution over the house-tops telegraph wires or cables intended for the several uses to which electric currents are now commonly applied; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and

complete specification thereof.

' The post or support the subject of the presentinvention is intended to be applied in connection with underground systems of wires or electric cables which are brought together for connection or distribution in test-boxes at the street-corners,where now the several means of city illumination, postal collection, and street directory are concentrated, and is designed to serve the several purposes of city convenience indicated, so as to clear the thoroughfares of the multiplied structures for those purposes now incumbering them.

Hitherto, in the absence of any extended system of underground electric conduction, the wires have been strung on huge poles with cross-arms in the open streets, and by their great numbers and their crossing in every possible direction these rwires have become not only a notable inconvenience and danger in the public .use of the streets and air-spaces above them, but, by the position and ungainly appearance of the poles and cross-arms in front of private residences, a source of individual annoyance and architectural disfigurement.

' The features of the invention here illustrated and claimed are three: first, the means to prevent induction between the wires or cables of different uses within the post; second, the peculiar construction by which the wires or cables are carried around and above the spaces and position allotted for the electric lamp; and, third, the extension of the column above the lamp-fixture and the novel construction of the head at the top thereof, by which the cables are supported and led out from the head to the house-top in the natural curves of a proper suspension, due to the line of direction of the cables, so as to afford architectural symmetry.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a view of the column in elevation, showing the position of the postal boxes and the bands or strips of projection in form of a capital for street directory, which need not be further alluded to. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of the part of the post about the space allotted to the lamp, and shows the construction and position of the wrought iron tubes designed to conceal and at the same time carry the cables around the open center of illumination. Fig. 3 is also a sectional elevation, showing the combination of the cap-piece with the upper terminal division of the column, and the arrangement between them of the curved radial openings which serve as supporting rests and outlets for the cables. Fig. 4 is a horizontal cross-sectionof the column, showing the thin diametrical division of metal, which extends upward within the several segments of the column to near the height of the open lamp-space, and serves to prevent induction between the cables within the column by the separation in distinct channels of those carrying the heavy electric-light currents from those ofthe weaker currents used in telephonic transmission. Fig. 5 is a plan view of the upper terminal portion of the column, and shows the arrangement of the radial curved depressions, in which the cables are fastened by small clamps and serve as easy rests for their weight, as they curve again upward to the roofs of the adjacent buildings.

The column is provided with knot-like projections at convenient distances from the position of the street directory, which is reached by a light step-ladder up as far as the space for the light. These serve as climbing-supports in the daily service required in the trimming and adjustment of the lamp and its attachments.

Referring to the figures in detail, A, Fig. 1, represents the portion of the column designed for containing the electric lamp. It consists of an ornamental open-work frame of cast-iron in the form of a shield. The particular shape or device, however, is not material. This castture and into the extension of the column any claim with reference to it.

iron open-work terminates above and below in tubular bosses, (shown at (Z d, Fig. 2.) In these bosses, and also partaking of the structure of the ornamental part of the frame, are secured the curved wrought-iron tubes to a a to. These tubes are first bent to shape and laid in the mold which receives the melted cast-iron, and are thus solidly fixed in and give strength to the cast iron openwork frame, and open into the hollow column below the lamp-fix above it. This extension B is fitted into the upper boss (I, and carries at its upper end the flaring head-piece (l, which is formed with curved fluted channels 0 c a, serving as restsupports and outlets for the cables. One-half of these circular outlets are formed in the cover or eap-pieeef, which is fastened to O at two opposite points by small bolts and nuts, (shown at an, Fig. 3.) The outer edges of the headpiece 0 are formed on a descending circle to shed moisture outwardly and prevent it from entering the interior of the column.

Fig. 1 shows attached to the ornamental frame A a metal hood or cover, 0. This is usually made of sheet metal flaring outward and downward, and serves to protect .the elec tric lamp from snow and rain. It may be made in two halves and attached or removed from the frame at pleasure,- but I do not make At t, Fig. 1, is shown the curve which is naturally given by the grooves in the head of the column to the telegraphcables in passing out from the head to the roofs of adjacent buildings.

Fig. at shows at h the metal partition of the l portions of the column extending upward lon gitudinally, and on either side thereof, and separated by it, the plane sections of the telephone-cablest t and the heavy electric-light cable a.

As to the function of this partition, it may be remarked that it has been shown by numerous experiments with electric currents that a current in one conductor will induce another currentin a neighboring conductor, if the conductors are parallel with each other, or nearly so. It has also been found that such induced l currents are greatly diminished, if not prel vented, in the second conductor by inclosing either or both conductors with a metal or conducting coating surrounding their insulation and in connection with the earth. The same effect isproduced by separating the cables or conductors between which induction is to be prevented by a metal partition or division between them in the tube or column fixed in the earth, in which they are placed parallel with each other. The law governing induction is that the greater the current in quantity the greater the induction caused thereby. The metal partition, therefore, shown in the column protects the smaller telephone-wires in the one channel or side of the column from the induction of the currents passing in the much heavier electric-light wires in the other channel or division.

\Vhat is claimed as new is-- l. A combined electric-lamp and telegraph post consisting of a hollowiron column of usual construction, an open or divided segment, A, for an electric lamp and the hollow upward extension B, for carrying within it telegraph wires or cables, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The lamp-frame A, composed of cast-iron ornamental work and one or more curved wrought-metal tubes, as shown at a a a a, arranged together substantially as described, and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a hollow metal column for telegraph conductors or cables, the curved flaring headpiece O, containingradial divisions formed as curved supportingrests for said cables, and

5 provided with radial openings as outlets for the same, substantially as described.

L In a column or hollow post for containing electric conductors, the combination of electric-light cables or conductors with telepl1one-cables,when separated from each other by a metallic division constructed in and forming part of said hollow post, for the purpose of preventing inductive effects between such cables, substantially as herein set forth.

SIDNEY F. SHELBOURNE.

lVitnesses:

E. T. I'IURRY, FRANK. TYLER. 

